i’m giving a message at my church on time in about a month. When i was looking into how the church fathers viewed time i was surprised to read that many viewed the timeline of eternity contrary to what i’ve often heard. Rather than an arrow pointing it would be something more like a dot. i’ve attached an illustration i drew based on what i read. For Augustine, eternity is a state where all moments are immediately accessible to God, existing simultaneously in a single, unified "now." Everything is whole and complete without beginning or end. i input a handful of different writings in GPT and asked for a summation and got this: “For the Church Fathers, eternity is not merely an endless timeline or a cycle; it’s more like a divine state where time itself is transcended. They emphasized that eternity is accessible only to God, and humanity's eventual participation in it would mean entering a realm where the limitations of time no longer apply, experiencing a fullness and immediacy of life that earthly time cannot provide.” Beatific vision In the illustration i made you can see the view i’m traditionally used to on top and what i feel like the fathers are expressing on the bottom. This was my attempt at least lol

- Severe Asthma as a child - Got bullied as a kid and so takes on a lifelong practice of boxing (gets knocked blind in his 50s and he basically writes “good thing it wasn’t my shooting eye. I guess i’ll do JiuJitsu now” - Columbia/Harvard Law Graduate - Forms a volunteer cavalry unit made up of ivy league athletes, coal miners, and cowboys. They all travel to Cuba where he leads form the front on horseback like a 20th century Alexander the Great - Breaks up Standard Oil— Rockefeller’s corporation w/ a Market Cap bigger than a lot of country's GDP at the time - Gets shot in the chest during a campaign speech and literally continues his speech for an hour while his shirt soaks in his blood. He lives the rest of his life w/ the bullet lodged in his chest - After his 2 terms as president he goes on to survive a near death jungle exploration, serves as a lowly deputy sheriff in Dakota, and lives a cowboy’s life until his death